A Facebook $10 Billion IPO Would Dwarf Google’s IPO

The tech and investment worlds are in a frenzy, now that the Wall Street Journal has reported Facebook may be inching ever closer to a $10 billion initial public offering (IPO), possibly as soon as Q2 2012. It could be the most valuable IPO ever by an Internet or tech company, dwarfing Google’s $1.7 billion IPO in 2004, previously the largest by a U.S. Internet company. At that time, Google’s initial sale brought the company valuation to $23 billion (it’s now worth about $190.4 billion). Facebook, Google’s top online advertising competitor, was valued at approximately $50 billion in January, when Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and others invested $1.5 billion. SharesPost , a company that offers valuations of private companies, estimates Facebook’s current value at $66.6 billion. The rumored IPO could result in a $100 billion valuation for the social network. During the January r...